The safehouse was a ground-floor flat in Saket — three blocks from his office, registered under a company name that traced back to nothing, a single entrance and direct access to the building's emergency exit. He had used it twice before for exactly this purpose. He knew every corner of it.
He brought her there at eleven PM. Dev had gone ahead to check it. The flat was small — living area, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom. Food, basic supplies, fresh bedding. Dev had a gift for operational logistics that made him invaluable; he made things ready without being asked and then found somewhere else to be.
Priya stood in the living area with her bag. She had packed in twenty minutes — the quality of packing that told him about her previous life, the years of field research and site visits that had made her efficient with what she actually needed. One bag, everything in it that mattered.
"How long?" she said.
"The filing goes in first thing tomorrow. The investigation will be initiated within twenty-four hours. Rohit will know something is happening within forty-eight. His access to resources will be frozen within seventy-two if the ED moves at the pace my contact expects." He paused. "Between forty-eight and seventy-two hours is the window. When he knows the investigation is coming and before he's contained — that's when he's most dangerous."
